Voices From the Past Concerning Judges!

By David J. SmithJanuary 7, 2012

There was great concern in the past that the Supreme Court could create absolute power – an oligarchy! Has this come true in our time?

“Were the power of judging joined with the legislature, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for THE JUDGE would then be THE LEGISLATOR. Were it joined to the executive power, THE JUDGE might behave with ALL the violence of AN OPPRESSOR.” – James Madison, Federalist No.47

“[The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm for the efficacy of its judgments.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No.78

“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the DESPOTISM of an OLIGARCHY.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1821

“[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can.” – Andrew Jackson, 1832

“If I were in Congress and a vote should come up on a question whether slavery should be prohibited in a new territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should … Somebody has to reverse that decision, since it is made, and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1858

“During the past half-century, the balance of power between the three great branches of the federal government has been tipped out of balance by the courts in direct contradiction of the high purposes of the framers of the Constitution.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

“If the judiciary really is supreme, able to rule when and as it sees fit, the society is not democratic.” – Judge Robert Bork, 1971

“The separation of powers was designed to provide, NOT for judicial supremacy,but for checks and balances.” – Justice Lewis Powell, 1974

“Evidently, the governing standards is to be what might be called the unfettered wisdom of a majority of this Court, revealed to an obedient people on a case-by-case basis. This is NOT only not the government of laws that the Constitution established; it is NOT a government at all.” – Justice Antonin Scalia, 1988

Representative Ron Paul [TX] said this in a one minute closing remark in a presidential debate: “One issue that I think we have to revisit, because the founders understood it, but we have forgotten about it – and that is the principle of NULLIFICATION. If the federal government won’t respond, [then] … I would respond in the favorable way of reinstituting the principle of NULLIFICATION. The states have to be able to NULLIFY [bad law and bad court decisions]. This would reverse the trend, and this would STOP the usurpation of the powers and privileges from the states to the federal government.”

There is a sense of defeatism among the American people when it comes to the federal courts. People get angry, but then give up because the elite media and elite lawyers insist on judicialsupremacy and assert that the only way to check and balance the Courts is to pass a constitutional amendment.

The Constitution does not require a constitutional amendment to check and balance the judiciary. The president and each member of Congress takes an OATH to defend the Constitution; if they believe that the judicial branch is acting contrary to the Constitution, then they have an obligation to use their constitutional powers to CHECK and BALANCE the judicial branch.

Judges who issue unconstitutional decisions or who otherwise ignore the Constitution and the legitimate powers of the two other co-equal branches of the federal government can be subject to impeachment. An impeached judge who escapes conviction in the Senate due to its 2/3rds voting requirement may still face the possibility of his judgeship simply being abolished, which would require fewer votes in the Senate.

Remember, the principle of NULLIFICATION? A state could declare the court’s decision was a bad decision, and therefore, nullify it [declare it null and void]. Would this ever happen? Isaiah said our leaders were sick from the head to the feet (Isaiah 1:1-7).